HRD Antwerp Parts Company with CEO Macken

RAPAPORT... HRD Antwerp terminated its contract with chief
executive officer Peter Macken after less than 18 months because of
“differing strategic views.”

The grading laboratory’s board appointed
Ari Epstein, CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, as its interim CEO.
Epstein is the fifth person to lead HRD in four and a half years.

Epstein (pictured, left), an HRD board member, has also been
appointed president of the laboratory’s board of directors. The AWDC is the
primary shareholder of HRD.

Macken (above), who left with immediate effect, is
the latest in a string of chiefs to exit HRD in less than five years. Georges
Brys served for six years before being replaced
as general manager in 2013 by Serge Couvreur, whose contract
was terminated in 2014. Couvreur’s substitute in the short term was Marc
Descheemaecker, before Macken came
on board in June 2015. Like Couvreur, who joined HRD from the music and
entertainment industry, Macken came from outside the diamond sector, having
been CEO of Belgian risk management company Irmaco.